Tradition says Akalanka was born in Manyakheta, son of Purushottama, a minister of the Rashtrakuta king Shubhatunga. As boys, he and his brother Nishkalanka vowed lifelong celibacy. Wishing to answer the Buddhist logicians who were then criticising Jain teachings, the brothers are said to have studied secretly in a Buddhist monastery. When they were discovered, tradition says, Nishkalanka lost his life while Akalanka escaped. Scholars treat these accounts as legend, but they show how seriously the debates of that age were taken.
Akalanka is honoured as the master of Jain logic. Tradition tells of a long debate with Buddhist scholars in Kalinga, which he won. His lasting gift is his writing: the Tattvartha Rajavartika, a detailed commentary on the Tattvartha Sutra; the Ashtashati on Samantabhadra's Aptamimamsa; and short, dense works such as the Laghiyastraya that set out how we come to know things, the theory of pramana. A samadhi memorial linked with him stands near Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
